Gallery of murals now has 160 works of art

Muralists from 23 countries have adorned Hidalgo community with their creations

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

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The farming community of Morelos in Mixquiahuala, Hidalgo, has become a focal point for muralists from around the world, giving its people over 160 works of art over the last five years.

The initiative to cover the walls of the Morelos neighborhood with art sprung from a fortuitous meeting between Jesús Rodríguez Arévalo, an arts professor at the Autonomous University of Hidalgo, and José Ventura Corona, a local teacher and cultural promoter.

The latter invited Rodríguez to Mixquiahuala, changing the face of the neighborhood forever.

Rodríguez told the newspaper El Universal that the ongoing project emulates the pre-Hispanic and popular themes of the muralist movement that started in the 1920s and its three main proponents, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Those themes have been reinterpreted by 140 artists not only from Mexico, but from 22 other countries, creating 161 distinct murals that tell the history of the neighborhood, of Hidalgo and the native Hñahñu people, along with vignettes of the history of Mexico and current social causes, like the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa.

Morelos, Hidalgo

Residents donate their walls to the artists, leaving them covered in white paint and ready for their creative intervention. Paint and other materials are provided by the owners of the buidings and Ventura’s own cultural organization, La Fortaleza.

The artists themselves become temporary residents of the neighborhood, living with a local family for as long it takes to paint their mural.

The project has been running for almost five years, and without the involvement or support of government.

Mixquiahuala is a municipality located in the Mezquital Valley in southern Hidalgo and Morelos, whose population is about 3,000, is about 70 kilometers from the capital, Pachuca.